For Sergey Karasev, the 22-year-old Brooklyn Nets forward, his biggest priority this summer is taking a leadership role in returning the Russian national basketball team back to being a contender in the FIBA Eurobasket tournament, where it faltered a disappointing campaign back in 2015.
Without NBA players such as Karasev, Timofey Mozgov and Alexey Shved, and gone the days of Andrei Kirilenko, Russia was embarrassed in 2015, having lost four of their five games. With that reality having set in, Karasev told FIBA.com that he is making it his mission to lead Russia this summer in order to qualify for 2017.